Source: Mission Network News, April 27, 2015
Rescue workers from around the world are converging on Nepal. Saturday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the country just 50 miles northeast of Kathmandu, damaging an unknown number of buildings, killing many, and injuring thousands. Survivors say it was like trying to walk on a boat during heavy seas.
The earthquake hit just before noon local time on Saturday, April 25, the day Christians attend their weekly church services.
“People by the hundreds were worshiping … in those churches,” says K.P. Yohannan of Gospel for Asia. “[Our leaders are] trying to find out how many are dead or other churches affected.”
In terms of emergency response, Yohannan says GFA workers were prepared for this. “We have training going on continually for crisis. That is the reason why immediately our people could be mobilized right there in Kathmandu, reaching out to the suffering people.”
» Read full story and another from Mission Network News, Nepal Death Toll Expected to Double as Rural Damage Rolls in.
» See also an editorial piece from The Guardian, Don’t Rush to Nepal to Help, and, from the World Evangelical Alliance, A Request for Prayer and Support for Nepal. At this writing, the UN estimates that 25% of Nepal’s population was (directly?) affected by the earthquake.